No Open Door? Be A Strategist

In my last post I gave the hint that when you´re forced to act strategically you should obey 3 things:

your judgement ability – is it strong?

complex thinking ability – do you see the big picture real fast?

know your personal direction and motivation – are you a giver-, taker- or matcher-type?

You need a good strategy when you´re lost without any open door to walk through, no process to follow nor any available supporters. I think it´s challenging and also quite thrilling! If you can´t go back, you have to move on. Fact.

But be armed! Be self-aware! Be best informed!

Your complex thinking ability:

It won´t bother you if you´re an abstract thinker. But many of us can´t think abstractly. They have no inner eye and it turns them insecure. Is that you? Then life challenges you to become a complex thinker!

But it´s quite easy to get there. Think of an analyst, who is able to “see” connections between various puzzle pieces with her/his inner eye. Such a personality knows that things ARE connected. This person literally sees the edges and inter-connected spots. If you are aware of all the connected puzzle pieces you need to look at, when viewing a bigger growing situation, then you are on your way to see the big picture. The only thing which makes this complexity a bit difficult is that the various puzzle pieces are related to one another. If you move one thing, the other thing will re-act to it.

That´s what scares most people because you can not really control this interchanging action. But it will happen! Okay, here´s the big picture I´ll describe for you to better understand how complex thinking runs:

View earth from the distance of an airplane. You saw that picture before and you can recall it now in your mind. But, instead of thinking of the large continents, let me re-construct earth for you: now you see 10 little islands in the ocean. Abstractly they look like dark dots on a white piece of paper but the real picture is a dark blue ocean with green dots, covering 10 roundly shaped islands, all with a beige sandy beach. 10 islands are like 10 puzzle pieces.

Now imagine there´s a vacation resort on each island. 3 little speed boats care logistically for all 10 islands and they move around. They deliver food, collect and exchange the towels & bedsheets and also bring and take away the visitors. This is a complex acting process, not in line, rather wildly and randomly spread because visitors come, stay and go whenever they want.

If you can think of this action, then you see a complex picture. The bigger picture. And actually, that´s all. All you need to do is put your problem or your uncertainty in an abstract picture like the one I described for you. Here´s an example: let´s think of moving from one house into another house. There´s lots to obey! It´s all abstract, it´s different actions you need to do and to organize because they consume a differently longer time frame, including deadlines! To see the complete big picture, write down your single to-do-islands:

quit the old rental-contract in time or sell the house until…..

sign the new contract until…..

organize a forwarding agent and fill out lists, also think of what to scrap and what to buy new

paint the rooms before you leave

do the garden before you leave

call the phone company, exchange the new address

get in touch with the electricity company in case you move to another city or country

organize a good-bye party for your neighbours, set a date and invite them

quit the sports club you attend at

I don´t need to point out how tight these “to do´s” are connected to one another and how they rely on your decision making ability. This is complex, it needs to run, it needs to be organized, some things can be done in line and fast, others will pop-up just on 1 certain day. The moment you see all the single to-do´s abstractly like small island which will not move (!) – and your necessary actions and decisions like the speed boat (this has to move!) – is the moment you start gaining your valuable complex thinking ability!